Bonus reading for January book club, plus a field trip to BookPeople for “A Mess of Greens”

If my pre-Kindergarten son can get 14 pages of homework over Thanksgiving break, I don’t feel too badly suggesting bonus reading for our January book club meeting.

Last week, I posted about our January 10 meeting in which we’ll be discussing “The Help,” both the movie and the book, including the controversies surrounding both. Earlier this year, Tulane professor Melissa Harris-Perry came out with a book called “Sister Citizen” that will add some depth to this conversation.

Perhaps because of the timing of the publication, there is a 500-pound pop-culture gorilla in the room that does not make it into the text: the blockbuster film “The Help.” Harris-Perry’s Twitter followers and viewers of MSNBC were witnesses to her outrage over the depiction of black women who worked as maids in the Jim Crow South. On television and in the twitterverse, she decried the lack of historical context in the feel-good film. She also argued that the way that black women see themselves was not truly addressed.

If this is the case, “Sister Citizen” serves as an antidote to “The Help.” In her discussion of the Mammy stereotype, Harris-Perry provides a particularly astute analysis of why the enduring image is so offensive. Unlike the loud-mouthed Sapphire and promiscuous Jezebel, Mammy embodies many positive attributes — she is kind, nurturing and capable in the kitchen. Indeed, many of the women in Harris-Perry’s study embrace these characteristics. What they reject is the idea that these traits that they so value about themselves are seen as benefits for families not their own.

2 responses to “Bonus reading for January book club, plus a field trip to BookPeople for “A Mess of Greens””

Indeed! January 20 will be lovely, especially if the feminist kitchen-ers all come out. Bring your favorite food and gender questions and we’ll see where we get with them. Cannot wait!
–Elizabeth Engelhardt

Another book inspired by “The Help” is “Glory B.” by Augusta Scatterwood. She grew up in the south when integration was painful and often confusing for her as a child. Her interview about the book is on Weekend Edition for January 7. The book is for young people, but it sounds like a good read for any age.